Rocking K-pop, R'n'B and hip-hop until 2am every day – Melbourne's stylish new QT Hotel continues to expand with the opening of a laneway den devoted to booze and fried food, the aptly named Hot Sauce.
It's a Korean-Japanese street food menu overseen by QT Melbourne's creative food director Rob Marchetti and executive chef Paul Easson, but it's Indonesian-born chef Busarin Rojkarnwong in the kitchen. She's spent the past year with David Thompson in Perth at Long Chim and before that at QT restaurant Gowrings Bar & Grill in Sydney.
Tuck into burger/bao hybrids – fried chicken, yellow cheese and house-made hot sauce (produced in collaboration with the Melbourne Hot Sauce Company) in a soft steamed bun – or yakitori skewers ranging from unagi to offal.
A pot of sticky, gingery fried chicken topped with messy nori strips crosses paths with the bar staff before it hits the table. The dual-purpose serving vessel puts snacks on top and booze below: sip from side-angled straws to access the cup of Japanese whiskey and Capi smoked cola hiding beneath. Who said eating was cheating?
The 70-seater is short on seats – it's bar stools at 20 paces; perch around a central bar where bartender Sky Wang (ex-Sake Hamer Hall) is waiting to shake up aloe vera juice, yuzu and Midori for you or find a floating high top under a sea of upturned, upcycled Indian cooking pans that form both lampshade and ceiling.
Open daily 4.30pm-2am.
8 Portland Lane, Melbourne, 03 8636 8814, qthotelsandresorts.com/melbourne/eat-drink